JPH03139078A - Image processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily observe a continuous motion of an object consecutively photographed by reducing plural pieces of images obtained at a prescribed time interval from an image pickup element, by a digital processing, a constituting them to one piece of image and recording it in a recording medium. CONSTITUTION:Consecutive images A-D are photographed, and first of all, the image A is inputted to a buffer memory 23. Subsequently, the image A is brought to reduction processing to 1/2 in the horizontal and the vertical directions, respectively by a microprocessor 22. In the same way, the consecutively photographed images B-D are reduced, and inputted to the memory 23 by designating suitably an address. Image data stored in the memory 23 is inputted to an encoding circuit 17 through a data bus 20, brought to data compression, and thereafter, recorded in a memory pack 2. In such a way, continuous motion of an object consecutively photographed can be observed easily.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image processing method for compressing a plurality of images obtained from an image sensor using digital image processing and recording the compressed images on a recording medium, and in particular for digital electronic still images. This is suitable for application to cameras.

[Conventional technology]

CCD instead of camera using conventional silver halide photography system
Electronic still cameras using solid-state image sensors such as the following have been developed. This electronic still camera converts subject light into an electrical signal, subjects the converted electrical signal to appropriate signal processing, and then records it on a recording medium.

Figure 3 is a block diagram showing an example of an electronic still camera.
Object light 2 entering a lens 10 of a camera body 1 passes through a shutter 11, forms an image on an image sensor 12, undergoes photoelectric conversion under the control of a drive circuit 13, and then is output as an analog image signal.

This analog image signal is converted into a video signal such as a television signal by the signal processing circuit 14, and further converted into a digital video signal by the AD converter 15, and then transferred to a buffer memory capable of storing the video signal for one screen. 16 is temporarily stored.

The signal stored in the buffer memory 16 is sent to the encoding circuit 17
The data is compressed and recorded in the external memory back 2 under the control of the drive circuit 18.

These series of processes are controlled by a system control circuit 19 within the camera body 1 (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-269581).

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, when using a camera, there is a close-up technique in which the movements of a person playing golf, tennis, or other sports are continuously photographed at high speed. A plurality of consecutively shot images are each recorded on a recording medium as one image, and each is reproduced separately.

However, if continuous motion can be reduced and recorded in one image instead of being recorded in multiple images, the continuous motion of the continuously photographed object can be easily observed.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing method suitable for an electronic still camera that can compress a plurality of continuously shot images and record them as a single image.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The image processing method according to the present invention reduces a plurality of images obtained from an image sensor at regular time intervals through digital image processing, and converts the reduced plurality of images into a single image. After configuring it as an image, it is configured to be recorded on a recording medium.

[For production]

When reducing, for example, four images A to D obtained from an image sensor and composing them as one image, first, the first image A is reduced by half each in the horizontal and vertical directions (17 in area).
4) is reduced and stored in the buffer memory. In the image reduction process, first, the band is limited by a low-pass filter, and then image data is extracted at predetermined sample points in the horizontal and vertical directions to thin out the data.

The second to fourth images B-D are also reduced in the same way,
Store in buffer memory. In this case, a plurality of images can be arbitrarily arranged on one image by appropriately specifying the storage location (address) when storing each image A to D in the buffer memory.

The plurality of images A to D thus stored in the buffer memory as one image are encoded and then recorded on an external recording medium.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image processing system in which the present invention is applied to an electronic still camera, and the same parts as in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals and will be described.

In this embodiment, the subject light l entering the camera body 1 is converged by the lens 10 and passes through the shutter 11 to the CCD.
The image is formed on the image sensor 12 consisting of the following. Image sensor 12
The optical energy accumulated above is converted into an electrical signal under the control of the drive circuit 13, and is input to the signal processing circuit 14 as an analog image signal. The signal processing circuit 14 performs processing such as γ correction and white balance adjustment on the input analog image signal, and converts it into an image signal such as a television signal. The AD converter 15 converts an analog image signal into digital image data, and a first buffer memory 21 stores image data for one screen via a data bus 20.
supply to.

On the data bus 20, in addition to the buffer memory 21 described above, a processor 22, a second buffer memory 23, and an encoding circuit 17 are connected. processor 22
is for the image data stored in the buffer memory 21,
Two-dimensional low-pass filter processing is performed, and data is thinned out in the horizontal and vertical directions to compress the image data and then supplied to the buffer memory 23. Buffer memory 23
Then, a plurality of compressed image data are accumulated and supplied to the encoding circuit 17 as one image data. The encoding circuit 17 encodes the image data for recording and records it in the memory back 2. This recording to the memory back 2 is controlled by the drive circuit 1, and furthermore, this series of processing is controlled by the system control circuit 19.

In this configuration, if, for example, four snapshot images A to D are to be photographed and their image data is reduced and configured as one image, first, the first image A is recorded in the buffer memory 21. Then, the microprocessor 22 divides this image A by 1/2 in each of the horizontal and vertical directions (17 in area).
4) Perform the reduction process. Image reduction processing first limits the band using a low-pass filter, and then thins out the data. The reason why the band is controlled by a low-pass filter is to prevent the occurrence of aliasing due to a reduction in the sampling frequency and a simultaneous reduction in the Nyquist frequency as a result of data thinning. After passing the image data in the horizontal and vertical directions in the buffer memory 21 through the low-pass filter, the image data is extracted every other sample in the horizontal and vertical directions and input into the buffer memory 23.

Similarly, reduce the second to fourth snapshot images B-D,
The data is input to the buffer memory 23. In this case, images A-D
By appropriately specifying an address when inputting the image to the memory 23, it is possible to store the image in the form of inputting one image as shown in FIG. The quick-shot images A-D may be combined in another order.

The image data thus stored in the buffer memory 23 is input to the encoding circuit 17 via the data bus 20, compressed, and then recorded in the memory back 2.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to this invention, a plurality of consecutively shot images are sequentially reduced,
After composing the image as a single image, it is recorded on the recording medium, which saves recorded data and allows you to view multiple consecutively shot images at the same time during playback, making it easier to observe people's movements, etc. It becomes possible to do this easily.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which the image processing method according to the present invention is applied to an electronic still camera, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a snapshot screen, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the electronic still camera. 2...Memory pack, 12...Image sensor, 14...
- Signal processing circuit, 15... AD converter, 17... Encoding circuit, 21.23... Buffer memory, 22...
・Processor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] An image characterized by reducing a plurality of images obtained from an image sensor at regular time intervals through digital image processing, composing the reduced plurality of images as a single image, and then recording it on a recording medium. Processing method.